Story+1978-08-14+Hampton,+VA

´´Are you ready ? (cheers) are you willing ? (cheers) are you able ? (cheers)....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Spirit in the Night´**

´´We´re gonna be playing all night long so you guys ought to (?) and find your seats.....I can´t do autographs, I´m busy working up here....we´re gonna be playing a long time so all you guys should get comfortable so find your seats and clear the aisles here so people can see.... (?)....anybody here from Richmond ? (cheers) alright....that´s my second home....(?)....when I was 18 and 20 years old, I used to, me and Steve and Garry, we´d make our living playing down south a whole lot, in Richmond we played a whole lot of times....so....this is for....this is for you guys, this is ´Darkness on the Edge of Town´....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Darkness on the Edge of Town´**

´´(?) so all the people behind you can see, we´re gonna be playing a long time and they´re not gonna be able to see....I know it´s tight out there (?)....this next song, this is, uh, I come from a town called Freehold, New Jersey....it´s about 20 miles in from Asbury Park.....and uh .....I grew up there and my father worked in a.....worked a lot of different jobs, worked in a plastics´ factory there for a long time.....I always remember him six in the morning popping the hood to the old car, trying to get it started to go to work and uh.....he was 40, he was 45 years old when he packed everything on the car and moved to California with my mother.... that took a lot of guts, I wrote this song for him.....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Factory´**

´´(people yell out requests) We´re gonna get to those songs, we got, we´re gonna do that one, we´ll do that later, I promise, I promise.....here´s a song, uh....here´s a song I wrote a part of it while we was, uh, me and Steve and two friends of ours drove from Salt Lake City to Reno, Nevada, it was there that, uh, we came upon this old dirt-track, was called Rattlesnake Speedway and....(chuckles)(?) way out there (chuckles) there´s nothing out there....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´The Promised Land´**

´´My mother always told me if I did what I was supposed to.....that one day I´d wake up and everything´d be alright....but you find out....one day you wake up and everything ain´t alright (chuckles)...it ain´t gonna be alright....you find out you gotta prove it all night every night.... and that don´t make it no easier (chuckles)....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Prove It All Night´**

´´For all the Hampton, Hampton car boys....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Racing in the Street´**

´´Welcome to the second show at the Paradise Lounge (chuckles)....(?) dancing and listening pleasure, we have a special guest star....weighing in at 260 pounds, the master of disaster, Clarence Clemons....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Paradise by the C´**

´´Clarence is originally from Norfolk....(?)....he´s got all his folks here tonight, they´re about the nicest people I´ve ever met, right over there....spotlight on the Big People (chuckles).... anyway... (?) right down there, everybody wave, alright ? ...hey, Clarence brought a whole dummy crowd with him (chuckles)....the first time I met him, we were in Asbury Park and uh ....it was in the summertime and he came in, me and Steve were playing in this little club and he said ´Can I sit in and jam ?´....neither of us had the guts to say no so....anyway, this is for all the, uh....displaced Jersey Shore people who´s come down here....here´s ´Fourth of July, Asbury Park´...”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Sandy´**

´´I´m gonna do this for these girls (?)(screams)....how old are you guys....19 ?....18, alright.... anyway, here´s ´Sweet Little Sixteen´, alright....(?) from Austin ?....Austin, New Jersey.... Massachusetts....Boston, right, Boston....anybody else here from Boston ?....you guys are all alone....(?)....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Sweet Little Sixteen´**

´´It was late....in 1965....after a long series of tests....and in-depth scientific study....done by my brother-in-law in the basement of his mobile home.....we discovered....that I....was a teenage werewolf....they sent me to see the doc....doc said ´Take two asperins, don´t let anybody see you (?) tonight´....instead I went outside and went for a walk along the beach.... and I looked up, it was the full moon.... and all of a sudden this hair started growing all over my face....my fingers got longer....a guitar popped out of my left side....and I started to haunt ....the arcades in Asbury Park.....I can remember (?)...was out there all alone....didn´t have no friends....couldn´t kiss no girls with all that hair on my face....everytime I hitchhiked I never got picked up....I don´t know.... (....) This went on for years....could only go out at night....and finally, I remember, it was one....it was a night in August....it was 3 a.m in the morning.....they had me cornered on top of the ferris wheel....hopped down onto the roof of the Palace Amusements....jumped down from there onto the Kingsley Avenue and started hustling towards the Route 35 Circle.... now, at this time I only had the Asbury police force and about ten bouncers from a local bar, where I didn´t pay my tab, after me....but by the time I hit the turnpike, they called out the state troopers....gimme a little siren....(?)(Clarence makes a siren-sound on his sax)....and by the time I reached....by the time I reached Exit 109, they had the state troopers, they called out the New Jersey National Guard (boos) now (chuckles) Pennsylvania National Guard ? (boos) now, I´m on foot and these guys, they´re in their (?) and in their tanks and their cop cars and they´re coming after me....and I´m going as fast as I can....and they´re about a mile, I hear ´em catching up to me when all of a sudden this black Sedan pulls over....and I look inside and there´s this big guy in there and on the frontseat it looks like there´s a saxophone ....I said ´Great, I´ve got all the cops and the army after me, now I´m gonna get beat to death with a saxophone´....but instead the guy rolled down the window and he said ‘Son, I don´t know what you did do but I like your style....hop in’....so I got in, Clarence slammed it to the floor and we must’ve been doing goddamn 55 !....all I can hear was the chief of police from Asbury Park police sticking his head out the window and yell....‘Stop that son of a bitch with the gold guitar !’...”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Growin´ Up´**

´´Now I remember you....baby, I remember you....standing on the corner....of Richmond Avenue....hey, Big Man....remember all the guys....all the guys on her block, they called her Flamingo....you were so fine....you had such lonely sad eyes....and I remember...we´d hitchhike outside of town....and out in the middle of this field there was this burned-out, old ....Cadillac and we´d be sit in the back....(?)....and you cried.....baby, how you cried all night long....yeah, you cried....and me, I was your fool, I thought that I could stop, stop some of your crying....I thought that I could stop some of your crying.....but baby was crying.....and baby was lying....baby was lying....baby, you were lying....you were so young and you could tell such pretty lies....(?)....and you were so young and you could tell such pretty lies....so now you´re back....so now you´re back.....well, baby, I´m back too....and I´ve been out and I´ve seen some things....about me....and about you....and I found out....baby, I found out.....I found out that....baby, I found out....that we got to stop....baby, I found out....we´ve got to stop....we´ve got to stop....we´ve got to stop....stop....STOP !....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, middle of ´Backstreets´**

´´I wanna thank everybody for coming down to the show....thank you very much....we appreciate it....I´d like to thank you for....all the time when we were off, I always like....when I used to go out, the kids used to come up to me on the street and they used to say like ´Hey, how´s it going ? when´s the album coming out ? you know, we know it´s gonna be great, we´re with you´ and everything, I just wanna, I just wanna thank everybody for supporting us those past few years (?)....now, let´s get down to business....”
 * 14.08.78 Hampton, VA, intro to ´Born to Run´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//